Los Angeles Rams Release Veteran TE Lance Kendricks After Six Seasons

During his sixth season with the Los Angeles Rams, Lance Kendricks caught 50 passes for 499 yards with two touchdowns.

Prior to the start of the 2015 season, the Los Angeles Rams, who were playing in St. Louis at the time, signed Lance Kendricks to a new four-year deal that was going to keep the tight end around through the 2018 season. Unfortunately for Kendricks, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to finish out the final two years of that deal.

Related Story: Rams Signing QB Aaron Murray

Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News reported late on Thursday that Kendricks was released by the Rams along with Eugene Sims and Tim Barnes. With the new NFL calendar year kicking off on Thursday where teams were eligible to officially sign and trade players for the first time this offseason, the Rams kept themselves busy with the key additions of Andrew Whitworth and Robert Woods.

In other words, the decision to part ways with a veteran leader like Kendricks seems to simply be a business decision to clear up some cap space for any potential suitors moving forward. The first day may have gone well for Los Angeles with improving the offensive line and wide receiver positions, but the team still has plenty of work ahead in free agency along with the upcoming draft if they’re going to have any chance of bouncing back from last year’s 4-12 finish.

More from Ramblin' Fan

• As feared, this coveted DC is already quickly off the market
• Looks like Rams DC Raheem Morris won’t be the HC for this team
• 4 LA Rams villains we want to see blow it in the AFC and NFC title games
• LA Rams coaching staff shake-up summary
• Rich Eisen talks NFL HC search and LA Rams candidates

There’s no question Kendricks deserves plenty of praise for being a leader on this offense over the years, but sadly one of the top memories Rams fans will have of the tight end is how he fell one yard short of a $250,000 bonus this past season. Now that Kendricks is officially out of the picture, it will be interesting to see if Sean McVay can figure out a way to get more production out of Tyler Higbee during the tight end’s second NFL season in 2017.